This invention relates to an improvement on a graphical user interface, for using a keyboard, a pointing device, or other such input device to operate a computer object on a display.
Conventionally, in order to operate software resources and hardware resources of a computer, a graphical user interface (referred to hereinafter as GUI) has been used. As a GUI for operating an object that can be accessed from a computer, for example, a GUI in which a mouse cursor or other such pointing device is used to perform a selection operation in a directory or folder containing objects, to select a desired object, is widely known.
Due to increase in computer processing power and storage capacity, there is also an increase in the number of objects that are stored in a computer, and the number of objects that can be accessed via a network. With the above-mentioned GUI, there are cases where it is difficult to quickly select the desired object from among a large number of objects. As techniques for improving the operation of objects by using the GUI, the following proposals have been made.
A device is known, which extracts an adjacent object in the direction being traveled by a pointing device being operated by a user, and immediately moves a pointing cursor toward the coordinate position of that adjacent object (see JP 6-289996 A). Furthermore, a control system is known, which, from the migration speed of a mouse cursor on a display, predicts an object located at the migration destination point, and moves the mouse cursor to the predicted object (see JP 10-222307 A). Besides these, other techniques are known, such as a control system which uses the migration direction of a mouse cursor on a display, to judge a rectangular region which the user intends as the migration destination, and moves the cursor there (see JP 5-46311 A), and a device which detects an object located on a line extending along the direction in which a mouse cursor is migrating, and selects a candidate destination object (see JP 9-330177 A), etc.
Furthermore, as a technique for extracting information that is currently necessary from among a large amount of information to perform an easy-to-view display on a display, there is known a bird's-eye view display device, which is used in car navigation systems and the like (see JP 2000-307119 A). This technique utilizes a portion of a curved surface having a changeable rate of curvature, and simultaneously displays map information of places located distantly in the direction in which the car is advancing, and map information of places located near the car's position.